Joseph Mwangi haboured sky-high hopes of taking the Football Kenya Federation Premier League by storm when he wrote his High School exams at Passenga Boys in 2014.Just like any other upcoming player, the lanky player strongly believed that his talent had caught the eyes of top flight coaches or scouts for the years he had represented the Nyandarua-based institution in school games. However, his dream to grace the paid ranks of Kenyan football did not take off early as anticipated after he suffered a nagging thigh injury in 2015 while playing for his boyhood club, Nyahururu Griffon FC. He first brushed off the injury as a minor setback that would heal on its own within weeks but whenever he would resume training after feeling better, the limb would cry out for medical attention. ##EDITORS_CHOICE##The pressure to make something out of his life was also mounting, and he painfully decided to call it a day and took the academics route the same year. Mwangi joined the Nyandarua National Polytechnic to pursue a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and graduated in 2018. Hardly a year in the institution, he joined their football team and luckily experienced no pain in training and within a short time, he says he managed to rediscover his form. Determined to rekindle his ambitions of playing in the top flight, the 24-year old attended trials at Nzoia Sugar in December 2018 after graduating but he acknowledges that he was not good enough and thus, he did not make the cut. Where next for King Jesse Were?The creative midfielder revealed that he returned to Griffon who play their trade in the division two league and at the same time, armed with the skills he acquired in school, he sought for jobs to keep him going. A more mature Mwangi returned to Nzoia in January 2020 for trials and hardly a week his talent convinced coach Collins Omondi to hand him a five-year long contract. “My journey to the top flight and in football has been bumpy and full of hurdles. I contemplated quitting especially when I suffered a thigh injury but deep down, the urge to keep playing was irresistible. I failed several times but I didn’t allow my mind to be defeated. Today, I put on the Nzoia shirt with pride and the utter satisfaction of realizing my dream, ” he narrated. Joseph Mwangi ameupiga mwingi sana leo pale Utalii. One for the future pic.twitter.com/bGJGImbwbd— Meshack Kisenge (@kisengemeshack1) December 30, 2021 It is easy to pick out Mwangi in any football contest owing to his lankiness but he says he is never cowed especially when taking on his markers who occasionally try to bully him. Mwangi who believes that the sugar men will finish inside the top ten bracket disclosed that he was comfortable playing as a central attacking midfielder, creative as well as shielding the defence. “I like expressing myself on the pitch regardless of the calibre of opponent we are facing or my marker. I can play anywhere in the midfield but I am more comfortable in opening up defenses,” he said.
